Now The Cubs are getting beat by someone they once traded away.Ricky Nolasco pitched seven sharp innings, and Cody Ross and Gaby Sanchez hit home runs as the Florida Marlins defeated the Cubs 3-2 on Tuesday night.Nolasco (3-2), a former Cubs farmhand, allowed one run on five hits for the Marlins, who have won two straight after losing five of their six previous games. Nolasco, who was traded for Juan Pierre in 2005, struck out three and walked one.Leo Nunez pitched a perfect ninth for his seventh save in nine opportunities.Guess he’s no Kevin Gregg who bombed out with both teams the oast two seasons. The Cubs lost for the seventh time in eight games and tied a season high with their fourth straight loss. Starter Randy Wells (3-2) pitched eight strong innings, allowing three runs on four hits. He struck out eight and walked one.Highly touted Starlin Castro, who was called up Friday, committed his fourth error in two days and fifth of the season on pinch-hitter Wes Helm’s grounder in the eighth inning.In his last start, Wells allowed six earned runs on five hits in the shortest outing of his career in an 11-1 loss to Pittsburgh on Thursday and he didn’t fare much better early against the Marlins. In the second inning, Wells walked Dan Uggla, and with two outs, Ross hit Wells’ 1-2 pitch into the left-field bleachers. It was Ross’ second of the season.With two outs in the third, Sanchez took Wells 2-1 pitch into bleachers for his third of the season to make it 3-0.The Marlins and reliever Chris Leroux overcame a scare in the eighth inning. Leroux walked Kosuke Fukudome with one out. Ryan Theriot moved Fukudome to third on a single to right, and Marlon Byrd’s sacrifice fly made it 3-2.Lee followed with a double to left, but Theriot was wisely held up at third. Leroux limited the damage by striking out struggling Aramis Ramirez on a high fastball to end the threat.Lee, who was dropped from the third spot in the order to the fourth, doubled to right after Ross misjudged the ball on the warning-track and scored Byrd from first in the sixth inning to make it 3-1.

NOTES—Marlins CF Cameron Maybin made a nice running catch into the ivy-covered brick wall to rob Geovany Soto of extra bases in the fifth. Maybin was holding his left wrist after the catch, but stayed in the game after getting it looked at by the team trainer. … The Marlins won its first road series since April 13 at Philadelphia.

 

NOTES—Brad Stevens, Coach of National Runner Up Butler,was the Guest Conductor.

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This weird Stanley Cup Western Conference Semi Final series has now seen the road team win four of five games as Kevin Bieksa scored twice(and added an assist),while Roberto Luongo made 29 saves and the Vancouver Canucks remained alive with a 4-1 win Sunday evening.The Canucks scored first in the United Center for the third time in as many games when Cristian Ehrhoff’s slap shot beat a screened Anti Niemi just :58 into the game on the Canucks first shot.The Sedin twins Daniel and Hendrik each got assists. Then at 14:24, Bieksa put one past Niemi ofter a drop pass from Kyle Wellwood. The first period ended 2-0 with the Hawks out shooting Vancouver 11-7. Bieksa picked up his second of the game at 13:00 of the second period on the power play with Byfuglien sitting out a slashing penalty that was an obvious make up call for a blown slash a few minutes earlier.Byfuglien got Shane O’Brien with the blade,causing blood to gush from his face,but no call was made. O’Brien returned a few moments later unlike Sami Salo who took a puck in his midsection in the first period and did not return.The Hawks prevented a shutout at 12:51 of the third when Jonathan Toews scored his 6th of the playoffs assisted by Duncan Keith and Brian Campbell.After the Hawks pulled Niemi for an extra attacker, Alex Burrows sent most fans to the exits by scoring an empty netter.

NOTES—Attendance was 22,192…..,Game six is Tuesday in Vancouver….Salo was taken to a hospital after he was hurt in the first period and it was determined that he had a fractured testicle….The Hawks out shot the Canucks 30-24.

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ROSEMONT—Wolves goaltender Drew MacIntyre stopped all 28 shots he faced to keep the season alive with a 2-0 win over the Texas Stars in Game 6 of the West Division Finals at the Allstate Arena Sunday night.The best-of-seven series is tied at three games apiece, with Game 7 slated to be played at the Allstate Arena on Tuesday at 7 p.m. MacIntyre (1-1), who had three shutouts in 41 regular-season games, picked up his first blanking of the playoffs and the team’s third. The game marked his first start this postseason, and first since April 3. Right wings Anthony Stewart and Joey Crabb scored for the Wolves while Matt Anderson and Tim Stapleton each added two assists. Stewart gave the Wolves a 1-0 lead with his team-leading ninth goal of the playoffs at 12:28 of the first period. Working on the power play, Anderson passed to Stapleton to the right of the crease. Stapleton moved in, slipped a centering pass to the top of the crease, where Stewart pushed it over the line past Stars goaltender Brent Krahn.Krahn, who has started all 10 playoff games for Texas (7-3), left the game at 14:59 of the first period and was replaced by backup Matt Climie, who made 26 saves in 43:05 of action.Crabb gave the Wolves a 2-0 edge, 6:06 into the third period. Anderson threw the puck up the ice for a streaking Crabb, who drove towards the net and took a swipe at the bouncing puck, missing before succeeding in knocking it past Climie on his second try.

Fred Lewis felt a rush of adrenaline after Travis Snider doubled and John Buck singled off Bobby Jenks in the ninth inning.Lewis brought his teammates home with a three-run blast off Jenks and the Toronto Blue Jays rallied to beat the White Sox 9-7 on Sunday.Jenks (1-1) failed to retire any of the four batters he faced. Lewis drove a 3-1 pitch into the right-field seats for his second home run of the season, giving the Blue Jays an 8-7 lead.Jenks was booed as he walked to the dugout after yielding a single to Aaron Hill. Alex Gonzalez added an RBI single off Scott Linebrink.Although Jenks has only one blown save, his ERA is 6.75. In Friday’s extra-inning loss, he gave up a home run to Buck in the ninth inning.Ozzie Guillen said he may temporarily give Jenks a break as the closer.The Blue Jays won for the fourth time when trailing after eight innings this season.The Sox lost for the first time after leading following the eighth this campaign.Jason Frasor (2-1) got the win despite allowing Carlos Quentin’s RBI double in the eighth. Kevin Gregg, who blew a save opportunity on Friday, pitched a scoreless ninth for his ninth save in 10 opportunities.Alex Rios hit a tying homer in the seventh and went 4 for 4 for the White Sox who claimed him off waivers from Toronto on Aug. 10.Vernon Wells hit his ninth homer and Adam Lind had a two-run single for the Blue Jays, who have won nine of 11.The Sox pushed across two runs in the seventh to take a 6-5 lead. Rios hit a one-out drive to left off Shawn Camp for his sixth homer of the season. The White Sox went on to load the bases, and Scott Downs hit Juan Pierre to force in a run.Gavin Floyd allowed five runs and five hits in 6 1/3 innings, raising his ERA to 6.92.Ricky Romero pitched 5 1/3 innings for the Blue Jays, yielding four runs and eight hits. He struck out seven and walked five.The White Sox scored three times in the second to take a 3-1 lead. Jayson Nix and Pierre hit back-to-back RBI singles, and Ramon Castro scored on Gordon Beckham’s groundout.Toronto responded with four in the third. Lind singled in a pair of runs and Wells had a two-run shot.

NOTES—Beckham was 0 for 5 and is in a 2 for 28 slump…..The White Sox begin a two-game series against the Twins at Target Field on Tuesday.

CINCINNATI—The Cubs continue to look awful,having just finished a 1-5 road trip against two teams they supposed to beat. The Cincinnati Reds got a gutsy effort from Mike Leake, and Joey Votto took care of the rest.Votto hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning to help Leake and the Reds beat the Cubs 5-3 on Sunday.Votto connected on Ryan Dempster’s first pitch after he was visited by Lou Piniella. The two-out drive was Votto’s seventh of the season and handed the decision to Leake, who wasn’t feeling well but managed to hold the Cubs hitless until the sixth and finished with seven solid innings.Jonny Gomes and Drew Stubbs each drove in a run as the Reds capped a 4-2 homestand with their third win in four games.Tyler Colvin hit a two-run homer in the seventh to give the Cubs a 3-2 lead, but they still stumbled to their fifth loss in six games.Ramon Hernandez led off the Cincinnati seventh with a double but was thrown out at third on Leake’s sacrifice attempt. Leake advanced on Orlando Cabrera’s single before being replaced by pinch-runner Chris Heisey. Brandon Phillips bounced into a fielder’s choice, but Votto followed with his second homer in two games, a long drive to right off a backdoor slider.Dempster (2-3) realized Piniella might be criticized for leaving him in the game.Nick Masset worked the eighth and Francisco Cordero finished for his 10th save in 12 opportunities.Leake (3-0), who made his major league debut against the Cubs on April 11 without spending a day in the minors, retired the first 10 batters he faced — five on strikeouts — before walking Kosuke Fukudome with one out in the fourth. Derrek Lee promptly grounded into an inning-ending double play.Starlin Castro, who made his major league debut on Friday, led off the sixth with the Cubs’ first hit, barely beating out a sharp grounder up the middle. Phillips’ throw from second base just missed nipping Castro.The Cubs finally got to Leake with two out in the seventh. Marlon Byrd doubled, moved to third on Aramis Ramirez’s infield single and scored on a wild pitch. Colvin then hit a drive to right for his fourth homer.Leake, the eighth overall selection in the 2009 draft, allowed four hits, struck out six and walked one.Jay Bruce and Gomes led off the second inning with back-to-back doubles to give Cincinnati a 1-0 lead. Gomes stole third and scored on Stubbs’ grounder to shortstop.Dempster (2-3) gave up five runs and six hits in seven innings. He struck out seven and walked three.

NOTES—The Reds’ 14-2 win on Saturday was their largest margin of victory in a game since they beat the Mariners 16-1 at Seattle on June 22, 2007. … Dempster, who pitched for the Reds at Great American Ball Park in 2003, is 0-7 in 27 appearances at the facility.

No matter how ugly that monthlong beating was, Jake Peavy never doubted he would get out of it.Now, he’s back on solid footing and that’s bad news for the rest of the league.Peavy pitched eight innings for his second straight victory, Paul Konerko hit his major league-leading 13th homer and the White Sox beat Toronto 7-3 Saturday night to snap the Blue Jays‘ six-game win streak.Konerko drove a two-run shot off Brett Cecil (2-2) in the first inning after missing two games with a sore neck, and the White Sox drew three bases-loaded walks, including two in a four-run seventh that broke open a 3-1 game.That was enough for Peavy (2-2), who retired the first 16 batters before John Buck hit his eighth homer. He also allowed a leadoff shot in the eighth to Alex Gonzalez, whose three-run homer in the 12th on Friday gave Toronto a 7-4 win.Otherwise, Peavy delivered his second dominant performance in a row after struggling through the first month.Mixing a mid-90s fastball with sharp offspeed pitches, he allowed two runs and three hits with eight strikeouts without a walk after throwing seven scoreless innings in his previous outing against Kansas City.He’s looking more like a former Cy Young Award winner than a guy who went 0-2 with a 7.85 ERA over five starts in April.Cecil went from flirting with a perfect game to flirting with an early exit.He felt fortunate to hold them to three runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings, although the White Sox did take control in the first two innings.After retiring the first 19 batters against Cleveland on Monday, Cecil quickly fell behind on Saturday. Gordon Beckham walked with one out in the first and with two down, Konerko drove a 3-2 pitch to the seats beyond the left-field bullpen to make it 2-0.The White Sox added to their lead in the second when back-to-back singles by Alexei Ramirez and Juan Pierre loaded the bases with two outs for Beckham, who came in on a 1-for-20 slide. He managed to draw a walk that made it 3-0.Peavy was sailing along until Buck drove a slider to the left-field bullpen with one out in the sixth, giving him three homers in the past two games and four this season against the Sox.Any suspense ended in the seventh, though.Andruw Jones drove an RBI double off the center-field wall with two out and Alex Rios doubled in another run against Josh Roenicke. Casey Janssen then walked A.J. Pierzynski, Carlos Quentin and Mark Teahen to force in two more runs, making it 7-1.Peavy, meanwhile, made it look easy.He is emerging from what might have been the worst stretch of his career after lowering his arm angle slightly, going back to the motion he used before last season’s trade from San Diego. Peavy pitched well when he returned from ankle injury, going 3-0 with a 1.35 ERA after being activated in September, but even so, he felt that had more to do with his know-how than his pitches.There were some positive signs in a loss at Texas on April 28, when he allowed six runs but retired 16 of 18 after a rough start. Then he allowed four hits while striking out a season-high nine against the Royals on Monday and was nearly as good against the Blue Jays.

NOTES—The temperature was a crisp 46 degrees…..White Sox reliever Sergio Santos allowed a run in the ninth after 12 scoreless outings to start his career….Toronto DH Adam Lind was back in the starting lineup after being held out the previous day, although he wound up entering Friday’s game in the ninth inning.

CINCINNATI—For the first time, the Cincinnati Reds won one going away.Joey Votto hit a two-run homer in his first at-bat Saturday, and Jonny Gomes broke the game open with a bases-loaded single in the seventh off Carlos Zambrano, setting up a 14-2 victory over the Cubs that brought the Reds some rare, relaxing moments.For once, everything went right.Votto extended his hitting streak to seven games when he connected off left-hander Tom Gorzelanny (1-4), who hadn’t allowed a homer by a left-handed batter. Gomes’ single sparked a five-run rally in the seventh, and Hanigan added his first career grand slam an inning later as the Reds beat up on Cub relievers.Aaron Harang (2-4) struck out a season-high nine in 6 2/3 innings of Cincinnati’s most lopsided win this season. The Reds have been one of the majors’ most dramatic teams, getting nine of their 15 wins in their final at-bat. They hadn’t beaten a team by more than four runs all season.Starlin Castro doubled and scored in four at-bats, a day after he drove in a record six runs during his debut during a 14-7 Cubs win. He also committed his first error, one that came at a bad time.The 20-year-old shortstop doubled off Harang in the top of the seventh and eventually scored when Arthur Rhodes walked Xavier Nady with the bases loaded, cutting it to 3-2.Then, it all came apart. Castro then started the Reds’ seventh by botching Orlando Cabrera’s grounder. Second baseman Mike Fontenot followed with another error, and Sean Marshall walked the bases loaded. Zambrano, who agreed to move to the bullpen last month to give it some stability, came on and gave up Gomes’ two-run single.Hanigan drove in Cincinnati’s final runs with his first career grand slam in the eighth off Justin Berg.Afterward, manager Lou Piniella sat in the chair in his office, holding the bridge of his nose with his left hand while thinking about how his young relievers had melted down again.Castro had an historic debut on Friday night, hitting a three-run homer in his first at-bat and driving in a record six runs. A day later, he had a couple of bad moments in the field.The first one came in the third inning, when Brandon Phillips singled to the hole at shortstop — Castro’s long throw wasn’t even close. Phillips then stole second by reaching around Castro’s tag to get the base with his left hand, a veteran trick that worked on the youngest shortstop in Cubs history. Gomes’ single made it 3-0.

NOTES—It was 81 degrees at the first pitch on Friday night, 51 degrees on Saturday night. … The Cubs activated RH reliever Esmailin Caridad off the 15-day DL. He’d been sidelined since April 12 with a strained right forearm. Reliever Jeff Gray was optioned to Triple-A Iowa. … Struggling LH reliever John Grabow went back to Chicago for a precautionary MRI on his sore left knee. No problem was found. Grabow will get a couple days of rest. He’s 0-2 with a 9.26 ERA.

MILWAUKEE—The Rush,coming off a bye week,may have been flat. Or perhaps overconfident,but they lost the turnover battle they usually win,and collapsed after the first quarter and suffered their worst loss in more than six years, falling to the Milwaukee Iron 71-48 Friday night at the Bradley Center.The loss drops the Rush(4-1)into a tie with the Iron (4-1) atop the AFL’s Midwest Division.The Rush led 20-7 after the first quarter,but it looked like a different team showed up for the second and third period.The game was tied 27-27 at the half, but the Rush failed to answer the bell for the second half. After surrendering a Milwaukee touchdown on the Iron’s first drive of the third quarter to fall behind 34-27, the Rush proceeded to turn the ball over on four straight possessions – two fumbles on kick returns and two Russ Michna interceptions that were returned for TDs.By the time the fourth quarter began, it was 61-34 Milwaukee and the game pretty much over.The Rush turned the ball over six times, tying a dubious team record set in 2001.

“When you are playing one of the best offenses in the league, you can’t give them even one extra possession – let alone six,” said Rush head coach Mike Hohensee. “(Milwaukee QB Chris) Greisen has been playing as well as I have ever seen him play, and he continued his great play tonight.” Greisen has not thrown a single interception through the Iron’s first five games.After each team scored on its opening possession, Michna hit tight end Shawn McMackin with a 31-yard touchdown pass to put the Rush up 14-7.A Michna to Kenny Higgins 29-yard touchdown pass on the final play of the first quarter gave the Rush a 20-7 lead and it looked like the Rush was in good shape,but no!

NOTES: The 71 points given up by the Rush is the most a Rush defense has allowed since April 25, 2004 when the Los Angeles Avengers won 71-35 … the Rush returns home next Saturday, May 15 to rematch host the Iowa Barnstormers whom they beat week one in Des Moines.

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